


Straight Into Your Arms

by morvish



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8032249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morvish/pseuds/morvish
Summary: 5 times Lance went straight into Keith's arms, and 1 time Keith went straight into Lance's.





	Straight Into Your Arms

**Author's Note:**

> i've been listening to straight into your arms by vance joy on a loop for about two days straight now, so please join this special kind of hell with me.
> 
> i also just realised that the first line is "the first time it happened" and ok yes, the first time lance is in keith's arms is the I CRADLED YOU IN MY ARMS moment, but this is the first time lance barrels into keith's arms. the "straight into" is like, the key bit about this. i just wanted to clear that up. also i forgot. somehow?

**1.**  
The first time it happened, Lance was really sick.

He wouldn’t usually completely lose his balance and fall into the arms of the enemy. Well, not the literal enemy. Thankfully, he had yet to be grasped in the cold embrace of a Galran soldier. That was something positive about the whole situation he supposed.

He was stood on a small pedestal, a couple of feet off the ground; a better view of the battlefield to shoot the baddies and protect Voltron. He had been staring down the sight for a long time though, and was already feeling woozy as it was. Despite the rage of the battle, and the noisome clashes, the one eyelid Lance was using was drooping in lethargy. His limbs felt heavy and weak. His bayard had been too heavy half an hour ago, and now it weighed a tonne in his limp arms.

He felt like a wet noodle.

A hot and cold flush rushed through him when he pulled away from the precise world of his bayard’s sight. He blinked open the eye he had been squinting shut for the past while, and rubbed at it furiously. He cringed as an unpleasant tingle of exhaustion wriggled beneath his skin.

Lance tried to focus on the scene in front of him.

It was all too much though; too much noise, too much energy, too much happening. He groaned and clutched his head as a thin whine rang across his brain. He had been complaining about not feeling totally on top of his game that morning, but when Shiro had threatened to take his temperature Lance had refused profusely. To hell with missing a mission for a stupid cold, he had thought.

As he crouched on the cold ground, one hand grinding into his skull as though he could push the pain out, the other hand curled uncomfortably between the ground and his bayard’s handle.

He groaned slightly as the pain in his head eased slightly, leaving him with a ringing in his ears. He looked back towards the battlefield. Everyone he could see seemed to be doing OK; no one nearby needed his immediate help.

“Lance?” came a voice from somewhere close.

He fought the sluggishness of his limbs to twist around to find the voice. He tried to stand up, a chill of nausea rocketing through his tummy that he successfully ignored. However in doing so, he let the straining in his legs get the better of him. Once stretched out, they immediately collapsed underneath him in a shaky heap of achey tiredness.

Lance yelled in pain and also surprise as he toppled from the pedestal, but his fall was very quickly broken by a softness. The fall made his already swooping stomach do a few more turns, and his dizzy head feel even more like a marshmallow palace. But the soft arms which held him up were strong and unwavering.

Lance decided to take a moment to get his bearings before trying to get up.

His head was tucked in by the person’s chest, while his arms were hooked over their shoulders. It had clearly been a good catch. One of his knees was still buckled underneath him, but the other leg had found a bit more of a solid ground, though it felt as though he might have twisted his ankle a bit.

He breathed heavily, not even finding the energy to be embarrassed by such an almighty goof. He squeezed his arms around the person’s neck, trying to find some more grip as he scrambled to pull his legs up and gain purchase on the elusive floor.

The person whose arms were holding him helped him some. They pulled him close, lifting him up so he was at a better height.

Eventually, after some rearranging and grunting, Lance came face to face with Keith as his feet managed to find the floor properly.

Keith’s arms were wrapped tightly around him, one hand against Lance’s shoulder blade, and the other on his waist. Lance stared at him for a moment. His thick eyebrows were pulled closer together in what looked like angry concern, and his mouth was open slightly as he concentrated on keeping Lance up.

“Lance?” Keith asked again.

Lance quickly pulled away from him in time to barf on his boots.

* * *

**2.**  
Lance was pretty proud of the spot he’d found.

They were staying in the alien equivalent of a five star hotel for this diplomatic mission. By which he meant the walls were dripping with the finest goo, the beds were made out of the galaxy’s most expensive mulch, and the security in the place was ridiculous. It had freaked Lance out to the point where he didn’t feel like he could sleep. Hunk, who was sharing a room with him, had said mildly that with all the security around, shouldn’t Lance feel safer?

But Lance couldn’t put his finger on it.

Maybe it was the fact that the security guards were all giant slug-like creatures with gelatinous-looking skin that kind writhed at all times. Or maybe it was knowing that if he did something wrong, he could be instantly turned to dust by one of the hotel’s numerous dust-turning-into machines. Or maybe it was just the general … alien-ness of it all. How foreign and unbelievably, incalculably, horribly distant everything felt to earth. To home.

Usually when he couldn’t sleep, Lance would find something to keep him occupied in bed until he could get back to dream town. But this place was making him restless and anxious. He had to move. So he had slipped out of his bed, leaving Hunk and his low snores in the strange hotel room.

As he had wandered through the corridors, he had thought hard about why the hotel was making him feel so removed.

Usually he found places like this exciting and fun. New experiences to laugh and complain about. Goo and mulch was an amazing combination, and Lance knew in another mindset he’d be so ready to joke about it.

But for some reason he couldn’t, because all that was running through his head was how much he missed home.

Eventually he had found a huge window at the end of one of the corridors, with a small balcony. Only enough space for standing on it, but that was enough. Lance quietly opened it up and stepped out into the breeze. Outside he felt more at ease. There was the sound of waves lapping a beach nearby – and even though he knew it was just a lakeshore, he could happily pretend it was the ocean back home. There was a good view of the stars. Minimal light pollution here.

He supposed they were essentially staying in a country manor which might be why. Some things weren’t all that different he reasoned.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, breathing out, he felt a slow rush of heartache fill him up.

He liked home. It kind of sucked he couldn’t be there.

There was a soft noise behind him. A quiet footstep, and a short breath.

Lance turned around to see Keith. Awful, surprising Keith, who was warm and from earth and familiar. Even if Keith hadn’t known him. He was like a well-worn piece of the huge jigsaw which made up home.

Keith still sucks though, thought Lance as his feet closed the gap between them. His head fell heavy onto Keith’s shoulder.

Keith arms wrapped around his waist, and Lance sighed heavily, making Keith shiver and hold him tighter. Lance always thought he hid his homesickness well, but he guessed if even Keith wasn’t questioning a sudden late-night hug fest, then maybe he wasn’t as good at hiding it as he thought.

“It’s OK,” said Keith, with a little uncertainty in his voice.

Lance huffed a laugh, and snaked his arms around Keith’s neck, instead of hanging limply by his side. He just needed a bit of earth, a bit of home, to hold. He buried his face deeper into Keith’s shoulder, and Keith propped his chin on Lance’s.

“It’s OK,” said Keith again, rubbing Lance’s back roughly. He didn’t seem all that comfortable, so Lance pulled away sooner than he wanted to.

“Thanks,” he said, avoiding looking Keith in the eye.

Keith shuffled on his feet. “Uh,” he said. “Yeah.”

Lance coughed.

“There’s a constellation that looks kind of like Orion out there,” he said, pointing his thumb at the window behind him.

“Oh – oh, cool.”

Lance looked at Keith, his embarrassment faded.

“Wanna see?”

“Yeah, OK.”

* * *

**3.**  
Lance wasn’t sure who had initiated movie nights. It was either him or Hunk; not that it mattered he guessed. Just as long as everyone was aware that the reason every fourth night was the best was because of the dream team.

Tonight they were going to watch Star Wars, because Keith had insisted. Like Keith didn’t insist enough, he was now making demands about movie night.

When he had said that at the dinner table, Shiro had given him this look which made Lance wither and shut up. But he did concede that … maybe Keith wasn’t exactly the loudest guy when it came to requesting things from other people. Sure, in battle, Keith could go a bit overboard, but when he was back on the Castle, he barely asked anyone of anything.

Star Wars was OK. He guessed he could let Keith make them watch it on movie night.

They had each collected a bunch of stuff on their recent trip back to earth, including a load of movies. But the only things Keith had brought back were another pair of sneakers, a poster of his speeder, and a Star Wars video tape.

Once he had remembered that, on top of his resigned acceptance of Keith’s undemanding attitude, Lance actually felt kind of bad that he’d even argued with him about it in the first place.

When he got to the lounge a short while before movie night was meant to begin, Keith was already there. The only one there. People were usually late to watching the movies, especially Shiro, Allura and Keith. Shiro and Allura always had extra work to be doing and extra stuff to be planning. Lance always figured Keith was just being anti-social; wanting to train alone rather than bond in front of a movie with the others. He always joined them eventually though.

It was still a shock to see him there twenty minutes early though.

“Aren’t you training this evening?” Lance asked, trying to keep his tone light, not wanting his questioning to sound like he actually cared.

Keith shrugged from the couch. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the beginning.”

“Well,” Lance looked pointedly at the video tape in Keith’s hand. “I mean, you realise that would be physically impossible. Since you have the tape.”

Keith looked at it, as though surprised it was in his hand.

“Oh yeah,” he said.

Lance grinned widely. “Aha,” he crowed. “Idiot.”

Keith smiled a lopsided sort of smile. “That was pretty idiotic,” he agreed.

Lance’s smug grin faltered slightly at Keith’s agreement, before renewing itself but in a different flavour. This was friendly banter, not rivals one-upping each other.

He hopped over to Keith to grab the tape and put it in, and wait for the others.

An hour later, all of them were gathered around the glowing screen, dimming the lights in the room for a better cinematic experience. Allura and Shiro had been late as usual, but that was fine. Sort of. Shiro kept whispering stuff that had happened to Allura, who was thoroughly confused, having missed the first half hour. Coran was muttering eagerly to no one in particular about the physics and general space-science going on in the movie.

Lance, sat between Keith and Pidge on the couch, snuck a glance at Keith.

He had a faint smile on his lips and he was totally engaged with the movie.

Lance was pleased. Movie night was the best night.

“Lance,” whispered Hunk from where he sat by Pidge’s feet. “Are you going to the kitchen?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure,” he said in a jokingly exasperated tone. “What do you want?”

“Cookies and water please, thank you.”

Hunk flashed him an eye-wateringly dazzling grin and Lance felt his own smile become fond as he removed himself from the couch.

While he was in the kitchen, running one of the taps (which he hoped contained water – he still hadn’t quite got his bearings in there) into a glass, Lance’s mind wandered to Keith, and how content he seemed to be watching the movie. He smiled. Movie nights really were the best if they could even make grumpy guts look so calm and happy.

A sudden thought came to Lance’s mind. He shut off the tap and thought about this thought, before grabbing a few cookies from the tin Hunk’s mom had given them.

When he returned with Hunk’s order, he crouched down to pass them to Hunk who whispered a keen, “thank you!” in return. Lance then hopped over Pidge’s dangling legs, and in one swift movement, he parked his butt in his middle seat, but draped his upper body across Keith’s lap. Keith instinctively brought his hands up before realising there was no attacking enemy.

Lance curled his legs up so his feet were resting against Pidge’s legs. She gave him a sour look, but he knew she enjoyed his presence really.

He looked up at Keith who was giving him a bewildered look.

“Lance, wh-”

“Sh,” Lance quietened him. “The movie.”

Keith raised an eyebrow but didn’t question him further, and instead rearranged Lance slightly, so they were in a more comfortable position. Keith leant against the armrest, one arm under Lance’s head, the other over Lance’s middle.

Lance honestly wasn’t sure why he had done it, but he’d had the thought while he’d been in the kitchen to do it, and so he’d decided to just go for it. He shifted comfortably against Keith’s arm, who moved slightly as though in response.

He just figured Keith’s hugs were nice.

* * *

**4.**  
“To your left, your left!” Lance yelled into the comm, Blue’s map alerting him to the various enemies scattered about. There was a painful alarm going off to his right which meant that one of the other lions was in danger. Thankfully, since it was just him and Keith on the mission, he only had to look out for one other person – but again, it was just him and Keith on the mission so that other person wasn’t exactly the easiest to look out for.

He watched as Red tumbled to her right, taking out a jutting rock which shattered into dust against Red’s side, though thankfully avoiding a cannon from a Galran speeder behind her – but only just. It smashed into a crater in the distance, and the explosion burnt Lance’s eyes for a moment. He tried to even his breaths as he thought about how closely Keith had missed that cannon.

Lance slammed panicked hands on a few controls, but nothing he did seemed to be helping. They were specifically targeting Red.

“Keith, what are you doing!” he cried.

A wash of static came through the comm in a tumblr, before Keith’s voice crackled through, the signal wavering. “Ah- wefuh- All- lea- Getting through- Lance you have to leave me, I can handle thi- Lance, go-”

Lance ground his teeth.

He pulled down another map, this time one of the entire canyon.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he growled, hoping Keith was getting his messages without the static. “Keith, listen to me, turn on your positioning, and then go to your left when I tell you to. Can you hear me properly?”

Lance inwardly fist-pumped as a red flashing icon suddenly appeared on his map, beside the ones that were already there for the Galran speeders, as the geographical positioning found Red.

Another rumble of static came through his comm. “Ye- Hea- ou.” Keith’s link with Lance was even worse than before, but it seemed as though Lance could get through to Keith alright. Hopefully it would stay that way.

“OK, Keith, are you ready to turn left?”

Instead of replying, Keith sent a short blip on their internal Voltron transmission keys. Good thinking. He felt a bit more confident; Keith could hear him, and send him short answers if necessary. He wondered if he could remember some Morse code from Garrison training … probably not enough for right now.

He shook his head, clearing it of excess thoughts before he began.

Lance sat Blue on a cliff edge so he had some distance, but could still see what was going on from the cockpit.

“Keith, go left now,” he cried.

He watched Red veer left on the map, and looked out of Blue to see Red dashing across the path of one of the Galran speeders.

“OK, Keith, you’re going to corner them individually so you can attack them like that. You’re going to use the canyon like a maze. It might help if you get the map up.”

The transmitter key blipped again.

“Good, alright,” Lance looked over the map. Keith was zipping through the canyon’s turns and corridors. “No, other way, other way!” Lance cried as Keith nearly flew into a dead end. Red made a hasty turn, and looking out from Blue, he saw that she had smacked her rear end against the wall of the canyon. “Everything good?”

There was a blip from the key.

“OK, alright, so in about five seconds, you need to take a sudden right – do you see where I mean? I think that way you’ll lose the first speeder.”

A blip.

“Good – now, go!”

Red flicked to the right at the last moment, and the speeder to her left continued down the wrong canyon corridor past her.

Lance’s ears filled with that static again, and he heard Keith whooping somewhere in there. He grinned.

“Yes, OK, now you’re free to attack that other guy.”

Red was just out of view from Blue, so Lance decided it was time to change position – but he saw on the map, as Blue lifted into the air to find another perch, that the flashing light denoting the Galran speeder disappeared.

“You did it! I think anyway,” Lance cheered. “So just the other one now.”

The transmitter key blipped several times, and Lance laughed, hoping that meant Keith was celebrating a victory, rather than jamming the button in a panic.

“Wait,” he said. “Send one blip if that was happy, and two if it was bad.”

One blip.

“Good.”

Another ten blips in quick succession.

“Focus, Kogane. So…”

What Lance was going to say petered out in his mouth and was replaced with a yell of, “No!” as from the air he watched as a huge explosion shook the area of the canyon Keith was in.

There were no longer any flashing dots on the canyon map; only his own, dancing about as he tried to figure out how to get to where Keith was.

“Keith,” he cried. “Keith!”

There was no reply, not even static.

Every now and then, Blue reacted without Lance consciously confirming to do something. Though they were both aware of what the other wanted to do at all times, usually she would wait for him to give her the nod. Lance preferred to have some kind of final decision making on what they did, but this time he found he didn’t mind when Blue dove through the smoke and flying chunks of rock to find Red.

“Keith,” he repeated over and over to the terrible grey and brown of the endless pit of smoke, his yells petering to a pained whisper. “Keith…”

He was dimly aware that an alarm was going off to his left, meaning he was in trouble.

Blue told him the smoke was getting to her systems, and they had to get out of the smoke, which she did. Lance figured she didn’t wait for a response, because all he could think was: Keith, Keith, Keith.

Blue parked herself on the cliff edge above the explosion centre.

It was sunset, and as Lance came back into the world, he noticed details in the smoke – flickering embers heading up with the somehow heavy looking clouds of dust and smog.

Lance stared into it, as Blue sorted through her systems, so eventually all the noises in the cockpit had died down completely. No more alarms on either side of Lance.

The smoke had simmered down somewhat, and Lance forced himself to look away from it. He sluggishly brought a hand to the transmitter key, a small light, and touched it gently.

It blipped.

He choked on his own spit as he gasped and tried to yell at the same time.

A cloud of static entered the cockpit.

“I- Fre- Oke- U-”

“Keith, are you OK?”

“-et’s go! Let’s go, -ome on!”

Lance didn’t need telling twice, as a huge lion suddenly flew out of the great chasm of smoke. Blue joined Red in the sky, and Lance felt relief shudder over him as they flew past the canyon and into familiar civilisation. Some small towns where Coran was going to pick them up from in a day or so.

“You’re OK,” he said. Then he repeated it. “You’re OK.”

He got a few blips on the transmitter key in response.

He felt his hand shaking, and before he knew it, Blue was landing out of instinct. Lance hadn’t told her to, but he knew he had suddenly become incapable of flying her. She gently pushed him to leave the cockpit, hushing at his apologies.

He stumbled out of Blue, as Keith landed Red close by.

Lance was still shaking as he dashed over Red’s mouth, which was opening.

Keith looked thoroughly confused, but that was the only thing Lance could really detect before he had thrown his arms around Keith’s shoulders, burying his face into his neck. He didn’t realise it until he felt a wetness on Keith’s skin, but he was apparently crying too. This would have been humiliating if it wasn’t Keith.

Keith hands were limp for a moment, before they pulled tight around Lance’s middle. Lance hiccoughed at the touch.

He felt Keith shake his head.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Red’s a bit beat up, but I’m fine, honestly.”

Lance didn’t trust himself to say anything, so he didn’t. He just clung onto Keith for as long as possible.

Keith patted him gently.

“There, there,” he said, sarcastically.

“Shut up,” mumbled Lance, his words coming out wet and burbly against Keith’s neck.

* * *

**5.**  
It had been a long day.

Lance had been forced to clean for about five hours straight, then lunch had been bad because someone small and Pidge-shaped had eaten the last of his earth rations, and after than he had just wanted to nap, but Allura had forced him to go through archives and take painstaking notes about stupid stuff that nobody was ever going to care about.

Lance finally finished the last holovid, and haphazardly shoved it back in where he thought it had come from. He didn’t care anymore.

He slapped the button to turn everything in the room off and shoved his way out of the door.

He stalked down the corridors of the Castle, with only one goal in mind. He could hear Shiro chatting amiably with Coran in the kitchen as he walked past, probably setting up stuff for dinner.

He noticed Allura’s cloud of hair as he passed the lounge. She was watching some old sitcom that Shiro had brought back from earth. He could hear the tinny laughter, followed by her own impression of it afterwards. Usually, Lance loved to watch those sitcoms with Allura – it was so funny watching her imitate his customs. She was ruthless in making fun of them.

But he just wanted one thing right now.

Pidge passed him in the corridor, and he bared his teeth at her. She rolled her eyes dramatically and tried to trip him up.

Despite noticing her upturned foot beforehand and pulling a face at the obvious nature of her trick, he still stumbled over it, gaining a hoot of laughter as he walked on.

Lance felt the pit in his stomach deepen. Usually Pidge’s antics were funny, even if he was kind of a butt monkey. But it had been a long day.

Lance even waved away Hunk, who was sat in an alcove, fiddling with a piece of machinery, and asked very softly, “Hey, Lance, you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lied, as he continued onwards.

He finally got to the entrance to the lions’ hangar. He shouldered the heavy door, and pushed through into the large space. Red was in the corner, her mouth hanging open. Keith had been doing repairs on her all day after the canyon fiasco of a few days ago.

Lance walked across the room, his footsteps echoing dully as he made his way.

Once he got to Red, he didn’t pause, and instead just made his way through her mouth.

Once inside the cockpit, he was dimly aware that Keith, who had been stretching up in front of his chair to reach a panel on the ceiling, had looked up to him. Lance simply toed off his shoes, and quietly stepped straight into Keith’s arms.

“Hello?” said Keith, as he stroked Lance’s back.

“Hey,” mumbled Lance against Keith’s t-shirt covered shoulder.

“Are you OK?” Keith asked.

“Yeah,” sighed Lance, enjoying the comfortably familiar smell of Keith. He gripped onto him tightly. “It’s been a long day.”

“Is that why you took your shoes off?” Keith asked, and though Lance couldn’t see it, he could hear a smile on his face.

Lance closed his eyes. “Yeah,” he said again.

“Makes sense. Hold on.”

Keith stepped backwards into his chair, and Lance flopped forward with him, face still pressed against his shoulder, but now sat on his lap.

Keith stroked Lance’s thigh absentmindedly as he continued to scan over Red’s dashboard from the chair, mumbling reminders and notes to himself, and Lance had never felt more comfortable in his life.

* * *

**+1**  
They had agreed on a 24-hour day cycle so they could all eat, train and sleep at the same time. It made things easier, and also meant bonding time could be maximised. That was what Lance had been sold anyway. Though he appreciated that some people didn’t sleep as well as others, Lance relied on the solid eight hours this schedule provided.

So when he was woken up at what must have been around 4am by a loud rapping at his door, he was pretty miffed.

He considered not opening the door, but the knocking had awakened him so rudely that he had the anger-fuelled motivation to leap out of bed, taking his blanket with him of course, and fling the door open.

“Wh-” he started to say, but he didn’t finish, because suddenly – somehow – surprisingly his mouth was otherwise occupied.

A long time ago, he had once tripped over while sick, and fallen into the arms of one of his team members. He had pretended – even to himself – that he hadn’t known who it was until he saw their face. But he knew. He always knew. Keith was someone he was pretty sure he could point out from behind a closed door.

The point was, Lance was realising, somewhere in his mind there was a battle going on between a part of him who still wanted to pretend he didn’t know Keith Kogane in a way that people who are more than rivals, more than friends, do – but another part of him had the upper hand all of a sudden.

He brought his hands up to Keith’s face, and he kissed back.

He smiled into the kiss, rubbing his thumb across Keith’s cheek. Keith responded by wrapping his arms around Lance’s back and closing the remaining gap between them.

The kiss didn’t last all that long, or get that far. But they parted with redder lips than before, and Lance felt as though the tip of his nose was slightly abused, having bashed into Keith’s so many times.

Keith’s arms were off him all of a sudden, and Lance realised that without them or his blanket, which had slipped off his back in the chaos, he felt kind of cold. He rubbed his at his arms and watched Keith who seemed to be deliberating on something.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Keith said eventually.

Lance blinked once. “Oh,” he said.

Keith sighed through his teeth. “Sorry,” he raised his hands, like he was asking a question. “I just … you … you’re like…”

Lance let Keith struggle for the word he was looking for for a while.

After a moment more of Keith’s furrowed brow and silence, Lance put a hand on his cheek.

“I know,” he said.

Keith sighed deeply, and with only a single beat of hesitation, stepped into Lance’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for what i imagine are plentiful mistakes. it's 2am. thanks for reading. please comment and leave kudos if u enjoyed it, i would greatly appreciate it.
> 
> follow me - tumblr /morvish  
> twitter - @ morvvish


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